[mmaimcal] FYI: 29 Jan 2007 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Mon Feb 5 17:25:12 EST 2007
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
29 January 2007 - 12 Feb 2007
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT***************************
The President has sent the FY2008 Budget to Congress. Details on the
National Science Foundation request may be found at:
http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2008/
The National Science Foundation proposes a fiscal year (FY) 2008 investment
of $6.43 billion to advance the frontiers of research and education in
science and engineering. The NSF FY 2008 Budget Request includes an increase
of $408.79 million (6.8 percent) over the FY 2007 Budget Request. At this
level, NSF will build on recent advances and support promising initiatives
to strengthen the Nation's capacity for discovery and innovation.
The Mathematical and Physical Sciences request seeks $1,253M, an 8.9%
increase over the FY2007 request. Within this division,
Astronomical Sciences receives a request which is up 8.3% over the FY2007
request. The Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) request is up
3.9 % over the FY2007 request. NRAO is supported at the level of $52.74
million, an increase of $2.0 million over the FY 2007
Request. The total includes $8.2 million for ALMA early operations.
Within the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction line,
ALMA is increased by $16.38 million in FY 2007. Funding requested in FY
2008 from the MREFC account for ALMA reflects the new baseline configuration and cost as approved by the National Science Board.Figures for FY 2008 and beyond also reflect the new baseline.
Gemini Observatory and ALMA operations and instrumentation are
AST's highest priority in facility stewardship. Early operations funding
for ALMA increases to $8.2 million within the base budget of the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
See pp 10-13 of
http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2008/pdf/30_fy2008.pdf
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In April, Alison Peck will join ALMA at the Santiago Central Office as
Deputy ALMA Project Scientist. Alison earned her Ph. D. in Pysics at
New Mexico Tech in 1999 after earning an M. S. in Physics there in 1997 and
her B. S. in Physics at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. From 1997-9
she was an NRAO predoctoral fellow at the AOC. After
a postdoc at Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie with Karl Menten,
Alison moved in 2001 to Hilo to become SAO Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
There she worked on a team commissioning the SubMillimeter Array
telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, HI. In 2003, she becams a
Staff Radio Astronomer, working on operations at telescope site, and
responsible for all science and observer scheduling at the SMA.
Alison's research interests include continuum and redshifted spectral
line observations of high-redshift submm and lensed galaxies, as well as
nearby starburst, ULIRG and megamaser host galaxies.
We welcome Alison to NRAO and to ALMA.
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at:
http://www.alma.cl/alma_project
Photos of ALMA Construction activity may be found at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/almanews/almagallery/index.html
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General Happenings
Sky: C/2006 P1 (McNaught) provided a spectacular show over the
ALMA Operations Support Facility for visiting members of the Operations
Plan review committee. Some ESO staff photos may be viewed at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2007/mcnaught/Site/Photos.html
Santiago: Planning continues for the Operations Plan reviews culminating in Washington the week of 26 Feb, and for a meeting of the JAO and IPT leads,
to occur in Chile 9-12 March.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): About one-half mm of waer vapor was
measured on the site by APEX on several early February nights.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): Currently there are 368
persons working on the site of which 191 use the ALMA and ContractorÕs
lodging facilities, 167 live in the VVMO Camp facilities, and 10 live
out of Camps.
ATF: A workshop on Prototype System Integration was held at the AOC and
at the ATF. Fringes from LO2 through the correlator were demonstrated.
Lock of the LO1 signal has been achieved on both antennas.
Since then, lock has been achieved on LO1 for both antennas. The next
steps are: 1) tower beacon interferometry, and 2) astronomical
interferometry.
AOC: ALMA Simulation Software testing and development is occurring.
NTC (NRAO Technology Center, Charlottesville): The first cartridges
for Bands 3 (3mm), 6 (1mm), 7 (.85mm), and 9 (.65mm) are installed in
the cryostat and the Warm Cartridge Amplifiers (WCA)s are now attached;
any two may be operated simultaneously.
ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) tests of LO driver interference with
Band 3 were completed.
The Preliminary Acceptance InHouse (PAI) review for the second Band
3 cartridge was held on 18 Jan 2007. Testing on the third cartridge
is complete and the report is being written. The PAI report for the
second B6 cartridge is nearly done. Cartridge #4, third one to be
delivered by IRAM, is ready for acceptance. The PAI review meeting
will be held on 30 Jan 2007. PAI review for the second Band 9 cold
cartridge is scheduled for 05-February-2007, followed by the Critical
Design Review 6-7 Feb, 2007. Performance was verified for prototype
X6 frequency multipliers for Band 8 (0.6mm).
Construction of an upgrated two-station prototype correlator, including
Tunable Filter Banks (TFBs) to be deployed at the ATF has begun.
NAASC: A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
Reid and Brogan are participating in ALMA Simulation Software testing
and development.
A number of ALMA-related science discussions will occur during the
next fortnight:
7 February Charlottesville Astronomical Society Al Wootten 'ALMA'
8 February NRAO Colloquium Thomas Greve (Caltech) "Understanding the
Gastrophysics of Massive Galaxies: Lessons Learned From High-z and Low-z"
9 February Star Formation Discussion Group 4pm
12 February UVa Colloquium "The Role of Environment in Depleting the ISM
of Spiral Galaxies"
15 February NRAO Colloquium Brenda Matthews (NRC/HIA) "Debris Disks Around
Low Mass Stars: Frequency, Grain Growth and the Search for Planets"
16 February Radford U. Physics Colloquium Al Wootten "ALMA"
22 February NRAO Colloquium Antonio Hales, NRAO "Probing the Environments
of Planet Formation"
23 February Star Formation Discussion Group 4pm
Registration for the workshop 'Transformational Science with ALMA:
Through Disks to Stars and Planets' to be held 22-24 June 2007
is under way: See http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07/
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 29 Jan -
Tue 30 Jan - AEM antenna PPDR
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 31 Jan - AEM antenna PPDR
Thu 1 Feb - AEM antenna PPDR
8:00am - ALMA EPO telecon
Fri 2 Feb -
Sat 3 Feb -
Sun 4 Feb -
Mon 5 Feb - Danish delegation visits OSF
Tue 6 Feb - B9 cartridge CDR
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 7 Feb - B9 cartridge CDR
9:30 AM: ASAC Telecon
Thu 8 Feb -
Fri 9 Feb -
Sat 10 Feb -
Sun 11 Feb -
Mon 12 Feb -
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Jan 30-1 Feb all day AEM antenna PPDR Mestre
Feb 6-7 B9 cartridge CDR Groningen
Feb 7 ASAC Telecon
Feb 15 ALMA Board Telecon Telecon
Feb 27-8 all day ALMA Ops Plan Review NSF
Mar 1 all day ALMA/NAASC Plan Review NSF
Mar 9-12 all day IPT F2F MEETING Chile
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ***************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
SMA CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: 1 March 2007
The Submillimeter Array (SMA), the radio interferometer on Mauna Kea
built by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, makes available a fraction of the
observing time to principal investigators from the astronomical community
(worldwide).
The proposal deadline is 1 March 2007 for the observing semester
1 May 2007 through 31 October 2007. More information, technical details,
and instructions and tools for proposal preparation and submission can be
found starting in February at http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/, the SMA Observer
Center web site.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Herschel Key Program Announcement of Opportunity
NHSC Website: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Herschel/nhsc.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call for Observing Proposals for Arizona Radio Observatory Telescopes
(internal Call Only)
Deadline for Observing Proposals is Feb 16, 2007.
See http://aro.as.arizona.edu
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Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the
preceding biweekly period to Jennifer Neighbours or Al Wootten via e-mail
(jneighbo at nrao.edu or awootten at nrao.edu).
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